Author: Townshend, George
Biography:
TOWNSHEND, George (1724-1807: ODNB)
He was born on 28 Feb. 1724 and baptised at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, on 25 Mar. 1725, at which occasion George I was present as a godfather. His parents, who would be formally separated in 1741, were the heiress Etheldreda Harrison (c. 1708-88) and Charles Townshend, third Viscount Townshend (1700-64), of Raynham (or Rainham) in Norfolk. He came of a long line of landowners and politicians but after Eton and St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1740/1, MA 1749), while he was on his Grand Tour in 1743, he gave up studies to volunteer in the British army in Flanders. As a captain in the 2nd Dragoons in 1746 he served under the Duke of Cumberland—whom he came to detest—at Culloden. In 1747 he was elected unopposed as an MP for Norfolk, and in 1750 temporarily left the army, but after his reinstatement in 1758 he rose from colonel (1758) to brigadier (1759) and field-marshal (1796). He saw action at Quebec in 1759 and took over command of the army there after the death of Wolfe. In parliament he strongly supported an extension of the militia (as opposed to the standing army) and was successful in seeing his Militia Bill finally passed in 1757. In 1760 he became a member of the Privy Council. On 19 Dec. 1751 he married Charlotte Compton, the daughter of an earl, with a portion of £12,000; the couple had five children. In 1764 Townshend succeeded his father and took his seat in the House of Lords. Highlights of his later political career include a term as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1767-72), his elevation as Marquis of Raynham in 1786, and service as Lord Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk. His first wife having died in Ireland, on 19 May 1773 he married Anne Montgomery, the daughter of a baronet, with whom he had six more children. He died at the family seat at Raynham on 14 Sept. 1807 and was buried there on 28 Sept. His widow oversaw the publication of poems that show playful and domestic sides of his personality, as well as the satiric wit that once inspired his gifted political caricatures. There is a harsh “Epitaph” for Pitt. (ODNB 4 Sept. 2024; findmypast.com 4 Sept 2024; ACAD; British Press 18 Sept. 1807)
Other Names:
- George Marquis Townshend
- Marquis Townshend